Unit Three Assignment

Week Three Assignment ~ Background Searching on the WWW

Please post your work in your Research Journal/Blog

Since the goal of background research is to get an idea about the scope of your topic and to gather a vocabulary to use for search terms to use later in the library catalog and databases that is what you will look for in your web searches this week. Please document your experience/ answers to ALL of the prompts in the following questions/directions. You will find the assignment will go smoothest if you read through the entire UC Berkley site first, then print the assignment, and have the Berkley site open as you work through the assignment.

First: What is your research topic?

1. Select a Search Engine and run a search for your topic. Tell me the search engine you used and what noteworthy features appeal to you about this search engine.

·         Scan a few webpages from your search and:

o    Make a note of any new ideas or information you found.

o    List words that might be used for future searches. Be sure to include at least one DISTINCTIVE term, one BROAD term, one NARROW term and one RELATED term.

I used Google; the main noteworthy feature that appealed to me is how it highlights what I typed in the search bar. It also had links to images, YouTube videos, news, etc. It found almost 38,000,000 results in less than half a second and listed Wikipedia as the first result which is an encyclopedia. The US Berkeley site noted that this search engine has what is called a PageRank which is a system that includes hundreds of factors, emphasizing pages most heavily linked from other pages as well as that is has many additional databases including book search, scholar (journal articles), blog search, patents, images and more.

Word(s) to use for future searches

Distinctive: Adenovirus Vector

Broad: Gene Therapy 

Narrow: Single Gene mutation

Related: Biology/Bioethics 

2. Select a meta-search engine from the tutorial and run the same search there.

·         What do you notice that is different about the results? What is the same?

·         What is your impression of this tool?

It found fewer results and did not even list all of them. It displayed the top 168 of the almost 21,000,000 it retrieved. The meta-search engine I used was Yippy.com and the main difference I've noticed on the left hand side of the page. It was a box that had 4 different tabs. The first tab was clouds which separated the results by categories such as cancer, scientific, clinical, research, market, etc., followed by sources, sites, and time. These 4 different tabs would allow me to narrow down my research to a specific factor. For example if I wanted to find something recent, I would use the time tab and go from there. If I wanted a non-profit organization or an educational site, or anything else, I would use the sites tab and go from there. The main thing that was the same as Google was how this meta-search engine (Yippy.com) highlighted what I had typed in the search bar (Gene Therapy). It also had other links to news, images, blogs, etc.

I really like this meta-search engine. I think it will be helpful in helping me narrow down my results or even help me discover things that I didn't think of when doing my research which I can also add to my research paper. I will definitely use this source more now that I am aware of its existence.

3. Do a web search for a subject directory on the discipline your topic represents using the directions in the tutorial for “How to Find Subject-Focused Directories for a Specific Topic, Discipline, or Field”.

·         What is the name of the directory you found? Do a search for your topic in the directory.

·         Scan a few webpages from your search and:

o    Make a note of any new ideas or information you found.

o    List words that might be used for future searches. Be sure to include at least one DISTINCTIVE term, one BROAD term, one NARROW term and one RELATED term.

·         How did searching the subject directory differ from your search engine/meta-search engine searches?

The subject directory I used was Yahoo directory.

I never really used Yahoo for anything other than just checking email. I was not aware of anything such as Yahoo Directory to be honest. Before I did a search for my topic, this directory had different “databases” that I could choose from to make my research easier such as different categories like Arts and Humanities, Business, Health, Entertainment, News and media, and much more. I clicked on the Health “database” because I believe that my topic (Gene Therapy) would best fit this area. Once I clicked on this “database”, I was offered with a lot more categories I could choose from for my research, but I didn't choose any of them, I just typed “Gene Therapy” in the search bar and was offered with almost 8,000,000 results. This directory just like the search engine Google and the meta-search engine Yippy also highlighted my topic; it also had different links to images, videos, blogs and more. This directory had listed other topics for me to try which I thought would be helpful when doing my research. This could help me find the invisible college. It also had links to related searches I could try, it gave me an option to filter by time between the present and the past, and on the right hand side of the page it had ads that were related to the topic that was researched. The difference in this directory with the search and meta-search engines I believe was how this had categories for me to choose from before I had typed my topic in the search bar. I think this way; it narrowed my topic down and would have made it easier for me to find the information that I need.

Word(s) to use for future searches

Distinctive: Adenovirus Vector

Broad: Gene Therapy 

Narrow: Single Gene mutation

Related: Biology/Bioethics 

4. Follow the directions under the “Invisible or Deep Web” link to find a database/ deep web information source on your topic. You will likely need to use a broad term to get good results. Continue to broaden your terms until you find something you might use. Please give me the URL and tell me your impression of this process.

I clicked on the Find Articles link and it led me to site that had many different databases such as articles by subject, general articles, news, books, etc. I clicked on General Article Databases and it too had a page that was full of databases. I then clicked on the Academic Search Complete but it required a username and password to log in and I don’t have that information. So, I tried Google Scholar instead. That I have used before and I liked. I typed in my topic (Gene Therapy) because it is very broad as is. The following is a link to the results that Google Scholar had provided me with when I searched Gene Therapy. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Gene+therapy&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C48&as_sdtp=

What I like about Google Scholar is that it doesn't just display articles from universities, it also has research papers that were written by scientists in the form of a PDF file which allows me to view the full text. There are a couple of problems with finding articles that belong to universities. A main problem is that if you are not a student at that university, you can not access the article without a login. Another problem is that a lot of the times, you have to pay or subscribe in order to view the whole article. But here is an free PDF article that I found on Gene Therapy. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Gene+therapy&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C48&as_sdtp

5. Evaluation- You read some criteria last week on how to evaluate information in general with some additional suggestions for websites. This week you read about evaluation of websites in particular. Please respond to each of the points below in your evaluation of a website of your choice.

Select One website that relates to your topic and evaluate it according to the techniques and questions in the tutorial.

I decided to go with the search engine (Google) and used the search bar to type in my topic (Gene Therapy)

a.   What did you learn from the URL? Think about – personal page, domain, publisher

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/genetherapy/

This is the URL of the website I am using. This is not a personal page. It is an educational page that belongs to the University of Utah. It is the main page to all the information needed to explain what Gene Therapy is and what it’s used for and what not. It also has additional resources in order to obtain more information about the topic.

b. Scan the page for:

·         Information about the sponsors/authors of the page. Is there an “about us” link?

·         Is there a “date last updated”?

·         Are there any author names, either individual or organizational?

·         What are the author’s credentials?

·         Can you tell if the page has been updated?

o    No main authors of this page. It seems that it is run by the Genetic Science learning center of the University of Utah. However it does have an about us link on the top of the page that includes the address of the university, a phone number and a feedback email link.

o    No specific date other than the year 2013

o    No author name(s), it just concludes that all of the information on the website is by the Genetic science learning center.

o    No author credentials

o    No I cannot tell if the page has been updated or not unfortunately.

c. Does the page have quality information?

·         Are information sources documented with footnotes or links?

·         If information is from another source is it complete, altered, or forged?

There are no main footnotes. However the page does seem to have quality information. The website specifies that the information is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award from the national center for research resources which is a component of the National institutes of health.

d. Use alex.com to see what other webpages link to this page. (the directions are in the tutorial)

·         Are the links to your page from reputable pages/institutions/authors?

·         Google the author and see what others say about him/her.

Using the site alexa.com, it showed that the global rank for this website is 8,881 which in comparison to how many other websites there are in the World Wide Web and that is pretty good. Its U.S. ranking is 2,407. That rank too is unbelievable to how many websites were made and are visited here in the United States.

e. Does it all add up?

·         What is your impression of the page overall?

·         Why was the page put on the web?

·         Is it irony, satire, or parody?

·         Does it seem as credible as information in books, journals, textbooks?

I really like this website that is provided by the University of Utah. It seems like it is quality information considering the fact that it is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award from the national center for research resources which is a component of the National institutes of health. That alone says a lot about the site. And again, it is the site to a major university here in the country. It wouldn't have false information on it.  The site was put up to help educate others about this topic of Gene Therapy. It includes all there is to know about it as well as other related resources. I Do not believe it is an irony, satire, or a parody. It is an educational source. And yes I do believe that it does seem as a credible source. It has information that I had found in other journals as well as books. This website also has a Cite this page link.

6. Finally, what did you learn this week that you will use in the future when you search the web?

I have actually learned  a lot this week from doing this week’s assignment. I have found out about other ways of looking for information about a topic I want to do research on. I have learned that there was such a thing as an invisible college. I didn't know about it but now that I do, it does make sense to me. I now know what a meta-search engine is and how to use it as well as how beneficial it would be to my research.